A pipeline of acid mine water sludge has residents fuming.
This proposed pipeline will run from a high density sludge treatment plant that is currently being built close to Grootvlei number 3 shaft.
The plant will treat acid water with lime to neutralise it before being discharged into Blesbokspruit.
Residents had a chance to voice their views when Digby Wells Environmental, environmental specialists, held a series of public participation meetings as part of an environmental impact study of erecting a waste disposal plant, last week.
Their aim was to discuss the options on what to do with the “mud” or sludge that would result from this acid mine water treatment process.
Steve Horak of Digby Wells explained this treatment plant was the short-term solution of the Department of Water Affairs to prevent decanting of acid mine water from old gold mines.
This decanting has already reached critical levels and had to be urgently addressed.
The plant is currently being built and might be in use by June next year, depending on where the sludge dam will be erected.
This sludge, according to Horak is non-hazardous.
He said there were two options to erect this sludge dam, the Grootvlei sludge disposal site, located on the existing sludge site of the mine and Largo Site 4, currently zoned and used as agricultural ground.
The Largo site is between Blesbokspruit and Aston Lake, close to farmers and residential areas.
The idea of a huge dump on their doorstep had residents in that area up in arms.
They already handed in a 640-strong petition against it to Digby Wells long before these public participation meetings had started.
If this Largo site will be used, pipelines with treated water and sludge to and from the plant will be erected on an existing bridge over Blesbokspruit.
At one of the meetings, last Thursday afternoon, residents voiced their feelings about the sludge dam at Largo, saying this cannot happen on their doorstep.
“This is my life,” one of the residents said.
They were worried about the groundwater and wetlands and the effect of the plant and pipeline on property values as well as residents” and their animals’ health.
Safety was another concern, as well as the formation of a squatter camp.
Residents wanted to know who decided on the Grootvlei and Largo sites and if there was not another alternative.
Gert Parsons of AgriForum requested if this organisation could do their own environmental impact studies, to be compared with that of Digby Wells.
Horak said they would welcome these studies.
Phillip de Jager, lawyer and resident of the Blesbokspruit area asked why Digby Wells was also doing the environmental studies on the close-by proposed opencast mine.
He wondered if the company had any interest in these affairs.
Horak said follow-up meetings will take place on July 23, where some of the residents’ concerns would be addressed.
The proposed environmental impact assessment is currently available for scrutiny at Springs Library.
It is also available under public documents on the website www.digbywells.com.
